Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

William K. McElvaney is a long time peace and justice advocate in both the local church and the academy. He served fifteen years as pastor of United Methodist congregations; twelve years as president of Saint Paul School of Theology (United Methodist) in Kansas City, Missouri; and eight years as LeVan Professor of Preaching and Worship, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas.

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Becoming a Justice Seeking Congregation

iUniverse, Inc.

Contents

Acknowledgments.....................................................................................ixForeword............................................................................................xiiiIntroduction........................................................................................xvSection I Foundations of Justice....................................................................xxiChapter 1 The Source of Justice ... where does justice come from?...................................1Chapter 2 The Signs of Justice ... recognizing justice when we see it...............................11Chapter 3 Strength for Justice ... Word, water, wheat, wine, and more...............................25Section II Doing Justice: Issues and Strategies.....................................................47Chapter 4 Personal Discernment and Discovery ... where the rubber hits the road.....................49Chapter 5 The Company of Prophets Today ... the road more traveled..................................73A Homiletical Postscript............................................................................139Appendix A..........................................................................................145Appendix B..........................................................................................149

Chapter One

For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up and high. Isaiah 2:12 I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. Isaiah 42:1

Where does the idea of justice come from and who says so? Must one have roots in a religious tradition to have or develop a heart and mind of justice?

Can you retrace your sense of justice, however defined, to its roots earlier in your life to the present? As I write I'm returning momentarily to my childhood and early adolescent years. I invite you to do the same as you read and reflect. Early on I had a sense of concern for kids who seemed weak or at a physical disadvantage. This awareness may have come from being a sickly child with asthma so wretched that I started to public school a year late. I was already developing an incipient "underdog theology" to be recognized as such many years later. In addition I absorbed some sense of fairness and concern for others from my parents and The Methodist Church. Even so my awareness was very limited and selective. What does your story look like?

As will be indicated in Chapter 4, social justice became a clearer concept and claim on my life as a seminary student. Studying the Hebrew prophets of social justice and the Reign of God proclaimed and embodied through Jesus brought a profound change. Yet it was the actual social reality of injustice encountered in and around my parish as a young pastor that tested my theological education and my capacity to respond.

I believe many persons, depending in part on the variables and instilled values of their upbringing, realize a sense of fairness and equity apart from specific religious attachment or commitment. Have we not all known others who say they are not "religious," yet have a keener sense of justice than many who claim to be persons of faith? And is it not so that most of us, whether we claim to be religious or not, may develop a feeling or understanding of justice and equality in some areas while lacking in others? The same person can vary greatly in attitudes about race, gender, class, and sexual orientation. An individual can be enlightened in one of these areas while biased, fearful, or even hostile in another.

Some Christians may be offended that persons who claim no religious faith can be more justice oriented than some of us church folk. To the contrary I take great comfort in the realization that God is loose in the world, not confined to institutional labels or boundaries. The Holy Spirit blows at will.

Some Christian theologians refer to this creation given availability of moral awareness as natural law or simply a theology of creation. The Roman Catholic belief in natural law is well documented in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The natural law is understood to be present in the heart of each person as the gift of the Creator. The wisdom tradition in scripture often appeals to human reason seemingly beyond revealed commandments of God. Whatever we choose to call it, and however arrived at, we can be grateful for justice allies within and beyond the church.

Whether our view of justice as Christians is shaped by God's gift of reason (natural law given in creation) or through Jesus and the prophets of social justice (revealed theology of grace and response), or both, there is widespread agreement among Christians that God is the source of justice.

A Primary Source of the Source

Biblical scholars have made a clear case that we see Jesus or "get" to Jesus through the witness and writings of the early church, and even so with a great variety of images. The same is true of our access to the Hebrew prophets and the Torah from which we as Christians learn deep truths about justice. The written word, with all of its fallibility and misuses through the years, is still our umbilical cord to the source of life and justice represented by Jesus and the prophets. Some of us might refer to scripture as "a source of the source" in developing our sense of justice.

At the same time, depending on our particular faith tradition, Christians also use a combination of sources in identifying the various kinds and claims of justice. My United Methodist brothers and sisters employ scripture, tradition, reason, and experience to round out our theological understanding of our justice vocation. Most Christian bodies rely on some combination of these factors for faith and action with different emphasis or weight assigned to each. How would you grapple with these sources of authority in your faith community, especially related to justice?

Insights from Hebrew Scripture

In his classic Theology of the Old Testament, Walter Brueggemann states Israel's claim:

"From the outset, Yahweh is known to be a God committed to the establishment of concrete, sociopolitical justice in a world of massive power organized against justice." He goes on to say:

"Israel, everywhere and without exhaustion, is preoccupied with the agenda of justice that is rooted in the character and resolve of Yahweh."

In his book Let Justice Roll Down, Bruce C. Birch provides similar insights into the source of justice: "Covenant faithfulness required of Israel the effort to embody justice, righteousness, and steadfast love in systemic social structures and practices."

"These qualities (justice and righteousness) are rooted in the character of God who has acted in justice and righteousness toward the people. God then expects these qualities to be reflected in the life of God's people in their relationships to one another and to God."

"Justice is a chief attribute of God's activity in the world ... the Mishpat of God is experienced by the vulnerable in the community as 'justice,' the upholding of their rights and the advocacy of...